Tourism and Travel Commons^™

Examining Key Drivers Of Customer Delight In A Hotel Experience: A Cross-Cultural Perspective, Edwin Torres, Xiaoxiao Fu, Xinran Lehto

Edwin Torres

Welcoming all guests is the calling shared by those who work in the hotel industry. Everyday hoteliers strive to provide a service of excellence to all of those who visit. This can be somewhat of a complex endeavor, as hotels receive guests from different nationalities and cultures. Previous research in the area of customer delight has revealed some of the factors that define and drive the customer delight experience. Despite the emerging literature on the subject, the question remains: are guest from different cultures likely to be delighted by different things? In the present study, the researchers conducted extensive semi-structured …

Are There Gender Differences In What Drives Customer Delight?, Edwin Torres, Xiaoxiao Fu, Xinran Lehto

Edwin Torres

Purpose– This paper aims to understand how male and female hotel guests become delighted customers. It aims to present the similarities and differences along with respective implications for theory and application.

Design/methodology/approach– During a period of three months, tourists were interviewed at an upscale Florida hotel. A total of 208 semi-structured interviews were conducted. The script for the interviews was based on an interview protocol used by Crotts et al. Adapted from a previous customer delight study (Torres and Kline), a codebook was developed to determine the salient themes that emerged during the interview process. Interviews were coded independently by …

One Experience And Multiple Reviews: The Case Of Upscale U.S. Hotels, Edwin Torres, Howard Adler, Xinran Lehto, Carl Behnke, Li Miao

Edwin Torres

Purpose– The present study aimed to understand the relationships between the various kinds of feedback received by hospitality operators. Information from guests, experts, and internal sources are often received, valued, and processed in various ways. The researchers sought to further explore the usage of such feedback and implications for theory and practice. Design/methodology/approach– A survey was sent to hotel general managers of four‐ and five‐diamond properties around the USA using the listing of the American Automobile Association (AAA). A total of 140 responses were received. The researchers utilized correlations and canonical correlation analysis to help understand the relationships among the …

The Influence Of Others On The Vacation Experience: An Ethnographic Study Of Psychographics, Decision Making, And Group Dynamics Among Young Travelers, Edwin Torres

Edwin Torres

The vacation experience is often enjoyed in the company of others. Whereas scholars have focused on the consumer behaviors of mature travelers, young travelers have received less attention. The present study explores customer-to-customer interactions among young travelers (in their 20s and 30s) within a European tour-group setting. Furthermore, it attempts to understand the influence such travelers have on one another. The decision-making patterns, role of the tour guide, group dynamics, and psychographic preferences are studied from an ethnographic approach. Results indicate that the young travel segment is not as homogeneous as previously conceived. Notable differences in activities, interests, and opinions …

Stars, Diamonds, And Other Shiny Things: The Use Of Expert And Consumer Feedback In The Hotel Industry, Edwin Torres, Howard Adler, Carl Behnke

Edwin Torres

Over the past few years, researchers have studied the topic of online consumer feedback. Most of these studies focus on consumer decision making, and managing a hotel's image.Consequently, more research could explore consumer-generated feedback from the viewpoint of hotel operations and service quality improvement. The present research explored the ways in which hotel General Managers use feedback from consumers (namely online), experts, and internal sources to improve service quality. A combination of a quantitative survey and qualitative interviews were utilized. The study targeted General Managers of upscale hotels.Quantitative data was analyzed using multiple and simple regression analysis, correlations, and ANOVA. …

Customer Satisfaction Index Of Singapore 2016: Q3 Results, Institute Of Service Excellence, Smu

Research Collection Institute of Service Excellence

The Customer Satisfaction Index of Singapore (CSISG) computes customer satisfaction scores at the national, sector, sub-sector, and company levels. The CSISG serves as a quantitative benchmark of the quality of goods and services produced by the Singapore economy over time and across countries. This is the CSISG’s tenth year of measurement.

Applying The Holistic Conceptual Conservation Framework For Sustainable Tourism, George Alexakis, Larry Rice

Journal of Tourism Insights

The tourism and hospitality industry has not always followed sound environmental stewardship. Increased awareness among tourists worldwide has prompted sustainabilit­y discourse encouraging long-term systemic approaches to planning and development. The research article proposes a holistic conceptual conservation framework that shows how a united tourism and hospitality industry can curtail the processes of environmental destruction and collectively offer authentic touristic experiences. Visitors can fully experience tourist destinations through integrated ecotourism, ethnotourism, and other related tangential offerings alongside those of larger tourism and hospitality providers. The conservation framework hypothetically strengthens the customer loyalty of tourists towards all industry operators and related practitioners, …

You Look Like You’Ve Seen A Ghost: A Preliminary Exploration In Price And Customer Satisfaction Differences At Haunted Hotel Properties, Kimberly Mathe-Soulek, Grant C. Aguirre, Ioana Dallinger

Journal of Tourism Insights

With the increasing popularity of paranormal ghost hunting shows in mainstream television and popular culture, research in haunted lodging establishments is warranted. The purpose of this study is to explore differences in price and customer satisfaction between haunted vs. non-haunted properties; while also considering inn vs. hotels and chain vs. independent properties. Using TripAdvisor customer satisfaction scores and average daily rates, results of this study are opposite of what is hypothesized such that overall, haunted properties have lower customer satisfaction; while haunted, chain properties have higher prices. An exploration of interactions among variables is explored and practical implications are discussed. …

Mulberry Garden : Seasonal Dinner Menu, Mulberry Garden

Menus of the 21st Century

Mulberry Lane, Donnybrook, Dublin 4.

Towards A Model Of Electronic Word-Of-Mouth And Its Impact On The Hotel Industry, Edwin N. Torres, Dipendra Singh

Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Scholars and practitioners recognize that spreading word-of-mouth can play an important role in the formation of a hotel’s image. However, the relationships among various measures of online customer engagement are relatively unknown. The present study analyzes the relationships and quantifies the impacts of various measures of online engagement including the number of online reviews, overall rating, and relative ranking. The researchers used path analysis on a sample of 178 hotels to study the relationships among relevant variables and build a model to explain the impact of such measures (Figure 2). The results reveal there is a positive direct effect of …

The Identification And Differentiation Of Festival Stakeholders: A New Perspective, Mathilda Van Niekerk, Donald Getz

Rosen Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This article sets out to identify, differentiate, and categorize festival stakeholders by means of a multidimensional approach. Festivals are coproduced by a collection of stakeholders, and festival organizers facilitate the festival outcomes by interpreting stakeholders' contributions, aims, and concerns. Based on an extensive literature review, a theoretical framework was developed that illustrates how previous studies have typically identified and differentiated festival stakeholders by listing them or by means of a one-dimensional approach. For this study, an online survey was developed and administered to festival organizers in the US, testing the possibility of identifying, differentiating, and grouping festival stakeholders from a …

Play The Cards, Roll The Dice – The Integration Of Casinos Within Asian Tourism Destination Development Strategy, Glenn Mccartney

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

New Asian casino destinations continue to emerge and expand their gambling options. The historical rhetoric of being a panacea to economic and tourism woes continues to dominant decades later. Yet the excessive regulatory environments and taxation regimes by authorities on the casino industry are unlike those applied to other destination tourism products. Once the domain of the United States in the 1990s with entertainment capitals such as Las Vegas and Atlantic City, the proliferation of legalised casino gaming is now accentuated in Asia in destinations such as Macao, Korea, Singapore and the Philippines. As a tourism product, this article highlights …

Careers In Culinary Arts, James Peter Murphy

Conference papers

The purpose of this presentation was to give individuals interested in pursuing a career in culinary arts the advice and access to education surrounding this field. Culinary arts covers the multidisciplinary field and areas of practice and study which includes culinary performing arts (cooking), gastronomy (food studies), bakery and pastry arts, food and beverage studies (bar, restaurant, barista), wine studies , food product development and health, hygiene and nutrition. So many individuals have come into this industry and gained local, national and international success.

Applicability And Usefulness Of The Stakeholder Strategy Matrix For Festival Management, Mathilda Van Niekerk

Rosen Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This article examines the applicability and usefulness of the stakeholder strategy matrix in the context of festival management. An extensive literature review gave rise to the development of an online survey. Data for the study were collected from festival managers in the US. This empirical study indicated that internal and external festival stakeholders differ from each other in significant ways, and that different management strategies should be used to manage them. The stakeholder strategy matrix appears to be more effective for the management of internal festival stakeholders and the least effective for managing external festival stakeholders. Based on the results …

Research On Problem Gambling Websites, Chang Boon Patrick Lee

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

This is a continuation of a series of studies on problem gambling websites. It has been noted in prior studies that one avenue problem gamblers might look for help was to go online to perform a web search. Online help is practical as help can be located immediately and this can help to ease the gamblers’ concerns that they are left alone to handle their own problems. While there are some anecdotal evidences regarding the success of problem gambling websites, there have been few empirical studies that relate directly to the perceptions and usefulness of the websites for the problem …

"Gravity Models" Applied To Projections For New Casinos: Techniques And Results, Will E. Cummings

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

All developers of new casinos prepare, or have prepared for them, projections for the likely gaming-revenue performance of those casinos; in many cases; regulatory authorities in North America also require or commission independent third-party assessments of such performance. These projections are very frequently based on "gravity models," applying techniques pioneered by Reilly and Huff to analyze other retail activities in relation to the geographic distribution of competitors and potential customers. In this paper, I review roughly 80 examples of such applications from recent casino-licensing procedures in the U.S., and compare their results.

Ready, Set, And Go Back: The Role Of The Judiciary In Brazil’S Bingo Ban, Luiza Jobim Llm, Toni Williams

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

Brazil, the host of the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics, is known for strong competitive traditions in sports and games. It is also one of only three G-20 countries (together with Saudi Arabia and Indonesia) that currently bans non-state provision of gambling products. Bingo was a notable exception to this prohibition, after enabling legislation was enacted in 1993, with the intention that proceeds would help fund national sports development. The game quickly became very popular but there were persistent questions about, and contestations over, the capacity of the regulatory framework to control the dual risks of exploitation of …

The Future Of Gambling Spaces: Esports And The World Of Competitive Video Gaming, Brett Abarbanel, Bryce Blum, Chris Grove, Carson Knuth, Seth Schorr, Rahul Sood

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

eSports, or competitive video gaming, are a rapidly developing segment of sport and gaming. eSports are a unique cultural and economic phenomenon, and only recently is this nascent industry garnering substantial attention from gambling operators, regulators, and researchers. In 2015, an estimated quarter of a billion dollars will be wagered on eSports, a number projected to grow to $23 billion by 2020 (Eilers Research, 2015).

This panel presentation will provide a general overview of eSports, including some background on the industry, a description of the market and general business model, information about the gambling opportunities within eSports, sponsorship opportunities and …

Profiling At-Risk Gamblers, Tapio Jaakkola, Kari Vuorinen, Mirka Smolej

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

The majority of gambling research has been concentrating on problem gambling and on the association between gambling behavior, game design and gambling harm. Much less attention has been directed at recreational gambling or on players that do not suffer from any gambling related problems. However, when it comes to preventing gambling harm we should also target those at risk as well those who are gambling moderately.

As a part of a project on prevention of adult gambling harm we did a study of at-risk gamblers in order to recognize and to define the socio-economic background of our target group. Prior …

Measuring Market Saturation In The U.S. Casino Industry: An Analytical And Empirical Analysis, Clyde W. Barrow, Alan P. Meister, David R. Borges

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

The national and regional economies in the U.S. remain on a slow growth trajectory, while the casino gaming industry has seen a rapid and ongoing expansion. Consequently, states, Native American tribes, and gaming operators have increasingly shifted their attention from gaming expansion to the problems of regional competition, cannibalization, market maturation, and market saturation. The question of “market saturation” has become a salient point of public policy debate and a topic that is now frequently raised in the industry and media. This paper analyzes the concept of saturation in the context of casino gaming markets and compares several metrics for …

Gambling-Related Problems Of Self-Excluders In Swiss Casinos, Suzanne Lischer

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

No abstract provided.

Gamblerization Of Post-Communist Society In Central Europe, Zdeněk Szczyrba, David Fiedor, Irena Smolová

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

Countries of Central European region (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary) joined a new stage of their development after 1989. In these countries, there was a building process of capitalism which went in parallel with far-reaching structural economic and social changes; such as the privatization of economies, de-industrialization but also gamblerization of society. Clarifying this term, gamblerization, it could be described as the process of a continuous penetration of gaming facilities in the area accompanied by an increased availability and accessibility of gaming machines in the society. It is important to say that this process was particularly allowed owing to …

Women In The Gaming Industry: A Research Summary, Toni Repetti

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

No abstract provided.

Generational Differences In Gambling Behavior And Attitudes, Don Feeney, Todd Maki

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

The five generations that make up the adult population of North America and Europe differ greatly in their gambling behavior and their beliefs and attitudes towards gambling. This presentation will discuss data that demonstrate the extent of these differences as well as the cultural background and formative experiences that led to them. It will conclude with a discussion of implications for the gambling industry, responsible gambling, public policy, and for those concerned with the prevention and treatment of gambling problems.

The Challenges And Opportunities In Macau Casino Gaming Industry, Peter Tcheong, Matthew Tingchi Liu, Edmund Hoingan Loi

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

This paper briefly reviews the success in last decade and analyzes the challenges in Macau casino gaming industry. Macroeconomic and political factors in China are the principal direct cause of Macau’s gaming revenue decline in 2014, implicating the vulnerability and unsustainability associated with the VIP business model of casino gaming industry. Although Macau continues to face challenges since late 2014, the prospect of Macau gambling industry is still optimistic in the long term, as there are emerging positive catalysts which will boost demand. From casino operators’ perspective, they should continue to try to increase revenue from mass market and non-gaming …

Responsible Gambling Training: How Do We Know What’S Working?, Janine Robinson

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

No abstract provided.

Responsible Gambling Training In Ontario Canada, Janine Robinson

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

No abstract provided.

A Critical Conversation On Responsible Gaming In Canada And Beyond, Lena Quilty

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

No abstract provided.

Privacy-Preserving Data Mining On Hospitality Big Data, Mandana Bozorgi, Yoohwan Kim

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

In this paper we present a summary of our activity associated with the security and encryption the big data on the hotels big data. We give a brief introduction to some techniques for security the data set in large scale, we then look into the homomorphism and Map Reduce environment. With the advances in computer architecture and silicon technology, processing large data set becomes possible after some fundamental data storage and processing algorithm been proposed and implemented. Analyzing the big data opened many opportunities for scientists in different research and application areas. Hospitality industry, for example, collects and keeps customers …

Responsible Gaming Certification Standards, Dietmar Hoscher

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

The European Casino Association (ECA) is representing the licensed European Casino industry in Brussels. It represents some 900 casinos form 24 European countires which employ around 70.000 staff.

In 2013 the ECA launched a project among its members concerning Responsible Gaming. A Working Group headed by Prof. Hoscher a Board Mamber of Casinos Austria AG was formed. The members where Resposnible Gaming Experts fom the different companies and associations within the ECA network.

The working group established a Responsible Gaming Framework that represents a collection of measures to presevent gambling addictions and identify vulonerable persons. The collection of measures are …